Glitz, Glamour And Tears At Monaco’s Most Lavish Wedding
Over the weekend, the small principality of Monaco witnessed and celebrated the moment when Prince Albert II said farewell to his longlasting life style as a notorious bachelor. The Prince married South African-born Charlene Wittstock, who is two decades younger than his royal highness in a lavish ceremony, filled with glitz, glamour and unfortunately, tears…
No expense was spared for this event and the 800 royal and celebrity guests - including fashion designers that came to share Monaco’s happiness. Princess Charlene walked down the aisle wearing a wedding gown cut from 130m of silk and studded with 40,000 Swarovski crystals, 20,000 mother of pearl teardrops, and 30,000 “stones in gold shades” arranged in floral patterns. The Giorgio Armani-designed dress took 2500 hours to prepare and 700 hours were spent working on the embroidery, while “kilometers” of platinum-coated thread were sewn into 130m of off-white silk. Any woman in the world would kill to wear such an amazing dress on their wedding day, but for Wittstock not the dress, nor the superb decorations from the wedding made her smile of happiness.
Despite the glamour, the luxury and the fact that she turned from a common Cinderella into a royal Princess, the bride shed tears during the ceremony and they weren’t tears of bliss. Her eyes reflected an indescribable sadness that made everybody wonder what made the bride cry in her wedding day, day that she expected for so many years.
The press started to investigate and seemed to have found an answer: the reason for Wittstock’s sadness was the recent allegations that came out just two days before the big event and which claim that the Prince has a third love child. The son of Grace Kelly already has two confirmed children: Jazmin Grimaldi, 19, whose mother is Tamara Rotola, an American estate agent, and Alexandre Coste, 6, whose mother is Nicole Coste, a former Togolese air hostess. He has been with Charlene for five years, so any claims of children under five suggest the 53-year-old Prince had been cheating on his bride.
Moreover, the news seemed to have upset the new Princess so much that she didn’t want to marry the prince any more. It looks like she “took refuge” in her country’s embassy before she was persuaded to walk down the aisle. But it wasn’t the first time she tried to get away from the Prince and the all thing marriage stuff. She tried to flee in May after she got cold feet during a trip to Paris to try on her Armani wedding dress, then she tried again not long after during the Monaco Grand Prix and last week, right before the wedding, police told Le Figaro newspaper they confiscated her passport while she was en-route to Nice airport. Then, Le Journal du Dimanche reported that Charlene finally accepted to go on with the marriage after an arrangement: “Several sources have even confirmed that an arrangement was reached between the future bride and groom”.
Nevertheless, despite the bride’s sorrow, the royal wedding remains in history of the tiny principality as one of the most glamorous and expensive wedding of all times. Heels were high, hats were broad, the couple exchanged 18-carat white gold and platinum rings by the House of Cartier , Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld’s fashion house made the princess’ blue wedding suit - which she designed - worn to the civil ceremony on Friday and for the post-wedding parade around Monaco Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco were carried in a hybrid Lexus LS 600h that was custom built as a landaulet, which has a top that is convertible behind the driver. After the religious ceremony during which the bride cried the whole time, and after the ride around the principality, about 500 select guests tucked on the terrace of the Opera Garnier into a multi-course gala prepared by celebrated French-born chef Alain Ducasse. Dozens of royals, heads of state, fashion and sports stars and even James Bond raised their glasses filled with Perrier-Jouët’s prestige cuvee Belle Epoque 2002 , the best champagne in the world.
La pièce de résistance of the banquet was a towering wedding cake, made of 50 kilos of strawberries and 2,000 edible blossoms including Proteas, South Africa’s national flower in honor of the Princess, and many of the ingredients had been freshly picked from Roc Agel, the estate that Rainier III gave to Princess Grace as a wedding present in 1956. The prince raised his glass and paid tribute to his new wife, telling his bride: “Charlene, thank you for putting up with my busy schedule, my absence sometimes…You are an incredible woman … and patient with me at times!”, prompting laughter from guests.
Then, the night sky lit up with a spectacular fireworks display, featuring a giant bouquet of ‘fire flowers’. Hymne à l’amour, originally by Edith Piaff was sung a capella, and the foghorns of the yachts sounded their approval throughout the bay while the royal couple closed their unforgettable three-day celebration with their first dance as man and wife. A wedding brunch followed yesterday in the private gardens of the tiny principality’s royal palace, prepared by the same French chef and creator of the main wedding feast.
Now, the royal couple are due to fly to Durban where 33-year-old Charlene trained as a swimmer and where the prince is due to attend a meeting of the International Olympic Committee of which he is a member. There is no news about where the prince and his princess will spend their honeymoon, but the Monegasques are expecting for the big news to hit the press as soon as possible. They are hoping for a heir to the throne of Monaco, otherwise, without a legal heir, Monaco would become an official protectorate under French jurisdiction.